Large crowd gathers for first Demo Derby

Rain prior to the Brush Chamber's first Demolition Derby created a muddy arena for the event, but didn't prevent the event from attracting a large crowd. (Lisa Jager / Brush News-Tribune)

The Brush Chamber of Commerce's first Demolition Derby attracted an audience of some 1,000 people, indicating members of the Brush area are enthusiastic about this vehicle smash 'em up event.

Rain showers late Saturday afternoon and into the evening subsided just in time for the event to begin at 7 p.m., and as the sun shone through the clouds a large, vibrant rainbow to the east provided a picturesque back drop for the event.

Saturday's showers, followed by a rainy Friday, created an extremely muddy arena at the Brush Fairgrounds, and prior to the start of the demo derby a bulldozer moved the mud around to make the arena manageable for the drivers and to create a barrier of mud circling the arena.

The rain did delay the start of the derby, during which the event's announcer explained some of the derby rules, including a driver must make a hit every 90 seconds, drivers who stall have 90 seconds to get their vehicle moving, drivers who smash into a driver's car door are automatically eliminated and once the derby is down to the last two cars, if the vehicles get locked up, the cars are unhitched so the drivers can "go at it again."

And go at it they did in three separate events — compact, first class and trucks. The vehicles in these classes had obviously been driven in a number of derbies given their damaged, extremely banged up appearance with numerous large dents, crunches and sometimes even missing pieces.

As the event proceeded many of the vehicles engines began to smoke, at least a couple of the vehicles lost a wheel and some of them quickly found themselves pushed by other vehicles into the mud barrier at the side of the arena where they became stuck.

Aside from the derby itself, the entertainment for the evening was the two-man Smirk show juggling act.

The Brush demo derby was a production of Get-Smashed, which is operated by Brush native Will Jones and his wife Rebecca who live in Wyoming. They also put on a large and successful derby each summer in the Colorado mountain town of Kremmling.